Chapter 22

Sang Li immediately walked to the door and asked, "How did he die? Throat slit?"

"No, he was stabbed through the heart with a sword."

Sang Li looked thoughtfully at Third Aunt in the room.

At this moment, Xia He, who had gone to get medicine, also came back with medicine.

Xiao Han took the medicine and checked it roughly. Due to the poor lighting, she did not notice anything wrong with it for the time being.

She took out all the medicine and carefully arranged it on the table.

"Miaomiao, give me your phone for a second," Xiao Han said.

Xia Miaomiao came over and handed her phone to Xiao Han.

Xiao Han turned on the flashlight and shone it on the medicine, inspecting it carefully.

Everyone saw her using the phone for lighting and they were all very surprised.

Everyone was waiting for Xiao Han's inspection results.

After a long time, Xiao Han finally found a tiny bit of medicinal residue in the medicine dregs.

She picked it up and looked at it carefully, then smelled it, "It should be this."

"What is this?" Xia Miaomiao asked.

"Oleander, poisonous, but such a tiny bit is not enough to poison someone to death," Xiao Han said.

After hearing this, Second Aunt immediately threw herself over, incredulously saying, "How is that possible? How could it be poisonous? Old Master ate it and was clearly fine!"

"Such a small amount indeed wouldn't do anything, but how long has Old Master Bai been taking it? Harmless things can become harmful over time! Just three grams of dried oleander can be fatal, but a very small amount is added to each dose of medicine, making it very difficult to detect."

After hearing Xiao Han's words, Second Aunt collapsed to the ground, her face pale, simply unable to accept that she had indirectly caused Old Master Bai's death.

Second Aunt crawled over, grabbing Lady Bai's skirt. "I didn't know, I really didn't know, Madam, I really didn't know!"

Bai Yunchen also knelt down, "Mother, there's no way Second Aunt would harm Father!"

Sang Li walked in, "Madam, Second Aunt was likely taken advantage of by someone, but now the pharmacy owner who sold the medicine has been killed to keep him silent, so we've lost that lead."

Lady Bai rubbed her temples, somewhat wearily saying, "Alright, everyone go rest for the night, it's late, we'll discuss it again tomorrow."

Only after the group of people withdrew did Lady Bai leave. As she left, she glanced at Third Aunt, who still had a haggard and delicate appearance.

Sang Li and Bai Yunhan walked out of the courtyard together.

"Master Bai, please keep a close eye on Third Aunt," Sang Li said.

Bai Yunhan paused, "I understand, does Miss Sang suspect Third Aunt is the murderer?"

"She is very suspicious. Do you know anything about her background?"

"I only know that Father rescued her from the hands of the Renya gang. In the Bai household she doesn't fight or compete for favor, and she's relatively younger than my mother and Second Aunt. My father quite liked her in the past."

"Did Old Master Bai have any enemies in the past? Could this be someone seeking revenge?"

Bai Yunhan shook his head, "No, my father only had some conflict with the Li family." Sang Li looked at him and smiled at him slightly, "May I ask what happened between them?"

Moonlight spilled down, shining on the two of them. Bai Yunhan looked at Sang Li's fair face, and his heart raced uncontrollably.

He immediately shifted his gaze away, "Actually, my father and Li Wenxuan's father Li Hong were good friends in the past, they did business together, just like brothers. Until my mother appeared, they both fell for my mother."

"Oh~ So that's how it was." Sang Li suddenly understood.

"Initially it was Li Hong who met my mother first, and he pursued her first as well, but my mother didn't like him. After meeting my father, they fell deeply in love, and Li Hong felt my father had stolen my mother from him. Because of this they parted ways."

"What about those rumors about your mother?"

"Those were idle gossip my father heard after returning from a long business trip. Coincidentally my mother met Li Hong once for business reasons, so my father assumed something improper was going on between them. In anger he even beat up Li Hong, so relations between the two families have deteriorated since then."

As Bai Yunhan spoke of these matters, he showed no emotional fluctuations, as if they had nothing to do with him.

"Actually, those rumors were spread by Second Aunt. My mother was also angry my father didn't believe her, so their relationship grew more and more distant."

"Then you... why don't you get along with your father?"

Bai Yunhan lowered his eyes, "I don't believe my father truly cared for my mother, otherwise... why would he take Second Aunt as a concubine? And even Third Aunt. Sometimes I wish my mother had married Li Hong instead, at least Li Hong only had one wife."

Sang Li looked at him in surprise, not expecting this ancient man to have such thoughts.

She jokingly said, "For men here, isn't it very normal to have three wives and four concubines?"

Bai Yunhan looked at her earnestly, "It is very normal, but I hope more for one man - one wife, without all that intrigue between principal and secondary wives."

"Master Bai, you really...make me see you in a new light. To be honest, in our place called Jiuzhou City, it's one man one wife, one lifetime one pair."

Unknowingly, the two had arrived at the guest courtyard.

Sang Li looked at the courtyard gate and stopped.

"I'm here, thank you Master Bai for being willing to tell me all this today. We will do our utmost to find Old Master Bai's murderer."

Not until Sang Li disappeared at the courtyard entrance did Bai Yunhan turn and leave.

"Ah!" Sang Li had just entered the courtyard when two shadows suddenly jumped out, giving her a fright.

"Xiao Han, Miaomiao, what are you doing? You scared me to death!"

Xia Miaomiao came over and pulled Sang Li's arm, smiling, "Sister Li, how was your chat with Master Bai? I see you two are a perfect match!"

"Stop it! He and I aren't even from the same world! And he's not my type either!"

"But this Bai Yunhan is clearly interested in you from the way he looks at you!"

Sang Li patted Xia Miaomiao's head, "Alright, stop gossiping. We don't belong here, don't go falling for anyone here!"

"Sister Li, you should say that to Mo Mo. With the way she likes handsome guys, who knows if she'll fall for ten guys here!" Xiao Han said.

"That's not love, that's just pure lust!" Sang Li sighed, "I wonder how she's doing now, I hope she's alright..."

At that moment, the supposedly lustful Su Mo had been locked up somewhere unknown.

Her hands and feet were bound, her mouth stuffed, and her eyes covered.

Su Mo pushed the cloth in her mouth with her tongue. After a while she managed to push it loose.

"Ptui!" Su Mo spit out the cloth in her mouth, "Trying to gag me like this, who do you think you are, filming a TV show?"

Her hands fumbled behind her back, and she easily untied the ropes.

She ripped off the cloth over her eyes at once. The room was very dark, not glaring at all.

Then she swiftly untied the ropes around her ankles. She had just tossed down the ropes and stood up when two pairs of eyes stared intently at her from the front, having witnessed all her movements and words.

"Damn!" Su Mo was startled by the two. She didn't expect them to be wide awake in the dead of night instead of sleeping!

"Misunderstanding, misunderstanding!" Su Mo promptly picked up the ropes on the ground and wrapped them around her ankles again, then covered her eyes with the black cloth.

It wasn't that she didn't resist, but these two had forced her to eat some unknown pill earlier.

She felt it was likely poison, and had originally wanted to take advantage of them sleeping to secretly search their bodies for an antidote. She didn't expect these two to be completely awake!

Awake and not making a peep!

The man in black went forward and ripped off the black cloth over Su Mo's eyes.

"So disobedient? Don't blame me for not showing mercy to a beauty!"

"Misunderstanding, big brother, I just...really needed to use the bathroom, you know what I mean?" Su Mo hurriedly said, "I haven't gone in so long, could you...let me go relieve myself?"

The man in black glanced at her. "Hold it in!"

"..."

Like hell she would!

Su Mo didn't struggle anymore either, and sat on the ground. "What are you catching me for anyway? If you want to kill me, just get it over with!"

With a "shu", a sword pressed against Su Mo's neck.

Feeling the icy coldness of the sword's blade, Su Mo couldn't help but shiver, and said with an awkward laugh, "I'm just joking... I want to live a few more days."

"When did you get to know Wu Ying?" asked the other man in black.

"Wu Ying?" Now even a fool like Su Mo understood the purpose of these two men capturing her. "Hmph! He's just a scumbag who slept with me and didn't take responsibility. I broke up with him! Catching me is useless!"

The man in black moved closer to her. "Since it's useless... then we'll just kill you."

"No, no, don't... it might actually be useful. Even though we broke up, I'm pregnant with his child!" Su Mo said seriously.

"..."

"You're pregnant with Wu Ying's child?!"

"Um... I guess I'm pregnant..."

It seemed like she didn't have the brains to keep spinning this story. It was getting more and more preposterous.

The two men in black glanced at each other. If this woman really was pregnant with Wu Ying's child, would Wu Ying want to leave the Dark Pavilion?

With the Pavilion Master seriously ill now, the next Pavilion Master would very likely be Wu Ying. Would he be willing to give up the position of Pavilion Master?

"Do you know Wu Ying's purpose for entering the Bai family?" asked the man in black.

"This..." Su Mo thought for a moment, unsure whether to say she knew or didn't know. "I'm not too clear. Didn't I say we broke up? Why would he tell me anything?"

"Now that you're pregnant with Wu Ying's child, won't he marry you?"

"What joke is this? A scumbag like him, marry me? I just slept with him once, and then he slapped his butt and left. It was only afterwards that I realized I was pregnant with his child!"

The two men rubbed their brows, feeling like Su Mo's words were muddled and confused.

So did Wu Ying have feelings for her or not?

Seeing their expressions, Su Mo felt like she had over-exaggerated with her lies.

Alright, she wasn't very good at blathering nonsense.

She quickly added, "Actually... I miscarried Wu Ying's child a couple days ago..."

"..."